Disney Trip...Day 3

On Saturday, Brady and the Green Machine had three soccer games...you know, the main reason we made the trip to Disneyworld :)  Let me just say this...Brady's team is amazing.  A really great group of boys, fabulous parents, and I love to watch them kick ass.  This was a 3v3 World Championship tournament held at the Wide World of Sports complex and we had to earn enough points to qualify for it by scoring high in several 3v3 tournaments last summer.  It's a huge event.  Like a zillion teams from all over the world.  We played teams from New Jersey, Maryland, Tennessee, Connecticut, Ohio, Texas, and Arkansas.  Very cool.  

Brady and I jumped on an early bus to get to WWoS early.  He was pretty nervous



Brady, Quinn, Braden, Nathan, Tyler.  8/9 year old boys are goofy.

Brady played amazing all weekend. He was focused and had his eye on the prize the entire time.  In fact, Coach Mike only subbed him one time the entire tournament. He definitely brought his "A" game!! I was so proud of him!

Love the camaraderie between these boys!!

"low-five" for #10...he had some amazing goals!

We ended our first day of soccer with 2 wins and 1 tough loss.  The boys all played great and were super pumped to clinch their division on Sunday!

 

 

After hanging at the hotel for a few hours, we left the boys behind and headed to the Grand Floridian for dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming! We packed her dress for the occasion because you can't meet Prince Charming in anything less than a ball gown :)

 

I mean really...how cute does she look?? 

 

The Evil Stepmother was less than thrilled to see Cate wearing a Cinderella dress.  She said "wasn't there anything else you could have worn??"  Best character actress in Disneyworld...hands down!

 

Prince Charming chose Cate to dance with him!! 

The food was outstanding...especially those mini-cheesecakes

Elaine ordered Cate a birthday cake for us to share after dinner.  It was too cute.  And because they gave us a big box to take the leftover cake home in, Fran loaded it up with mini-cheesecakes and other goodies from the buffet to take to the boys!

I'm so glad Grammy booked this dinner because it was so much fun!  After we met all of the characters and completely stuffed ourselves, we boarded the tram and made our way back to our hotel so we could rest up for Day 4 :)

Epcot

This trip we decided to only visit two of the major parks.  Of course Magic Kingdom was a no-brainer....and the kids chose Epcot for Friday. I love Epcot. Test Track and Soarin' are two of my favorite Disney rides and the park is wide open, not usually very crowded, and has something for everyone.  We were able to fast pass four rides instead of three (thanks to the hour+ I spent with the hotel concierge the previous night)....Turtle Talk, Nemo, Soarin', and Test Track.  Fast Pass is awesome for those who utilize it but it makes for a very long line for those that don't!  I was happy to be on the fast pass side of Test Track...the wait was almost two hours. No thanks!

Ready for another great day!

 

Sometimes the lines to meet the characters are really long, but we lucked out and usually had less than a 5 min wait (except for that stupid Duffy)

Ben and Carter were totally in to meeting the characters

Brady Hulk Hogan



Cate LOVES meeting and interacting with the characters!  She didn't stop dancing all day :)

Fran loves Chip n Dale

and apparently they love her too!

 After seeing the Disney movie FROZEN, Cate could not wait to see Anna and Elsa.  Unfortunately, the line was over 3 hours long (no joke!) and she was satisfied with just peeking at them through an open door in the gift shop.



She made a Duffy craft in Norway

Our last two trips, Bennett was kind of a pain in the butt.  However, this trip, he was the most fun!  I love when Happy Ben shows up.  Unfortunately, he passed the pain in the butt torch to Brady.

During one potty break, Cate joined a group of kids to run wild on the lawn (I have no idea how because my legs were KILLING ME)

and then this happened...



uh oh.  Game over.

 So, Duffy the Bear is Disney's newest character.  I don't know if he's on Disney Junior cartoons or what, but Cate could not wait to meet him.  He would be our last stop on the way out of the park.  As soon as we walked up, the bouncer? hung the rope to block us off so Duffy could take a break before his next round of pictures.  This completely pissed Scott off and he got into a tiff with said bouncer.  I actually had to tell him to sit down and zip it and he actually told me he was going to punch the guy in the face.  Oh my.

Watching Duffy head to the potty

 So, while we waited for the stupid bear to come back from break, Scott took Cate into the gift shop and came back out with a FIFTY dollar teddy bear.  I blame it on exhaustion because I know better than to allow Scott to walk into any store with Cate by himself. 

 

 Finally, Duffy made his way back to this photo op and Cate was even more excited to see him and show him her bear.  Scott remained behind the fence...continuing to make faces at the bouncer

We had a GREAT day and made our way back to the hotel in time to play in the arcade and shop in the gift shop.  Actually, I made my way back to our room and went to bed...I was exhausted! Next up...a weekend of soccer!

Disneyworld 2014

Three days after the kids 23 day Christmas break, we pulled them back out of school and headed to DISNEYWORLD.  WOO HOO!!!  This was our third time taking the trip for soccer and the first time that Brady would be playing.  We flew out Wednesday night...along with a zillion other soccer families. None of Brady's teammates were on our flight but we knew most of the soccer kids through our soccer club and schools.  Everybody was super excited and ready for a great long weekend! 

ready to fly

Thankful for airport charging strips. Disney needs to take note!



This was not the quietest row on the plane.  Not that I would know, because I had my headphones on ;)  Lots of games were played and stories read.

Real men carry pink backpacks

 

When we were in the hotel cafeteria/gift shop Thursday morning, the manager chose Cate to dress Duffy the Bear.  Each day, one kid gets to choose his outfit and they display him all day with a certificate that tells who dressed him.  Duffy is the newest Disney character....you'll hear more on him in the next post :)

Magic Kingdom, are you ready for us?!

 

Disneyworld isn't the most magical place on earth for a 16 year old but he rallied through for us

 

In the new section of Magic Kingdom, there is a Belle's story time show (cute but not worth a long wait!).  Fran was chosen to play a character...they asked for someone loud and we pushed her to the front of our group...ha! 

I have not laughed this hard in a very long time.  Bennett was the worst driver I have ever had to sit next to and I literally screamed the entire ride.  He ran into the car in front of us (Brady and Elaine) several times and I am still suffering from whiplash. 

At the Monster's Inc show (which is hilarious), Scott and Bennett were chosen from the crowd to answer questions and they had to stand up and dance in front of everyone.  It was so funny.  Bennett really got into it and busted some vicious moves for the audience :)

We had great seats for the afternoon parade/dance party.  Cate and Minnie Mouse shared a magical moment.  The big guy from the Incredibles jumped off his float, grabbed Cate and asked her to dance but she refused...saying she would only dance with Mickey or Minnie!

 

Unfortunately, this is where my pictures end.  My phone died around lunchtime.  Imagine that.  And apparently there are no outlets in Magic Kingdom.  I looked.  And looked.  I did take lots of pictures with Scott's phone but for some reason they won't transfer to the computer.  I'll continue to try and figure that out.  Anyhoo...we stayed and played all day and night.  13.5 hours to be exact.  The fireworks were fantastic and we were all EXHAUSTED when we finally boarded the bus back to our hotel.  Barely enough time to sleep before our Friday adventures...EPCOT!